Autographs
Lewis Cass, Secretary of War Signed War Department Rare Fully Executed 1842 Revolutionary War Pension Claim
LEWIS CASS (1782-1866). Officer in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, rising to the rank of Brigadier General; Appointed by President James Madison as the first Governor of the Michigan Territory in 1813; In 1831, President Andrew Jackson appointed Cass as Secretary of War; served as the U.S. Minister to France from 1836 to 1842; 1848 Democratic Nominee for President and lost against Zachary Taylor; U.S. Senator with a significant role in the passage of the "Kansas-Nebraska Act" in 1854 regarding Slavery, leading up to the Civil War.
May 28, 1842-Dated Post Revolutionary War, Partially-Printed Document being an Official State of New Hampshire submitted Pension Claim for Phinehas Gage, Signed, "Lew Cass" Secretary of War, Choice Very Fine. This choice appearing Document is 2 pages, measuring 10" x 8" and states Gage is entitled to $48 per year for life, as having served as a Private in the Army of the Revolution, and is nicely Signed by Lewis Cass, Secretary of War and Peiley Daeeye, Justice of the Peace, officially approving this claim. Overall, in excellent condition, the period wove white paper is fresh and clean, all manuscript portions and signatures are sharp and clear.
Lewis Cass (1782-1866) was born in 1782 in Exeter, New Hampshire, and moved to Ohio in 1799 when his father, Jonathan Cass, was awarded Bounty land there for his military service in the Revolutionary War. Lewis Cass was an officer with the Ohio militia and then in the Regular army where he served under the command of Major General William Henry Harrison.
In 1813 General Harrison chose Cass as military administrator of Michigan and Upper Canada and President James Madison appointed him Governor of the Michigan Territory (present-day Michigan and Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota). Cass' duties included serving as superintendent of Indian affairs.
Cass negotiated many treaties that involved leading expeditions into remote areas of the territory. Lewis Cass resigned as Territorial Governor in 1831 after his appointment as Secretary of War by President Andrew Jackson.
Cass became, "one of the master architects of American Indian policy." He helped resolve the controversy over the Toledo strip in 1836. He recommended surrendering the land and accepting as part of Michigan the area north of the Straits of Mackinac, the Upper Peninsula, that he knew to be rich in natural resources. Michigan was formally admitted as a state the next year.
Cass served as Minister to France from 1836-42, a U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1845-48 and l 1849-57, the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 1848 (he lost to Zachary Taylor) and as a candidate in 1852 and 1856 and Secretary of State under Buchanan from 1857-60.
Lewis Cass died in Detroit in 1866 after a productive political career. He authored the State Motto: "If you want to see a beautiful peninsula, look around you", he also designed the State Seal, and founded the Historical Society of Michigan.